There are five sessions foreseen in the programme focusing on “Allegations of NSA tapping into the SWIFT data used in the TFTP programme”, “Exchange of views with US Administration”, “Feedback of the meeting of the EU-US Transatlantic group of experts on data protection of 19/20 September 2013″, “Exchange of views with US Civil Society (part I)” and “Presentation of the study on the US surveillance programmes and their impact on EU citizens’ privacy”.

First session, on whether the NSA has been accessing EU bank data unlawfully.

In 2009, the EU concluded an agreement with the US that allowed continued access to SWIFT banking data for counter-terrorism purposes as SWIFT were about to move their servers out of US territory. The Terrorist Finance Tracking Programme (TFTP) was controversial at the time its provisions are subject to renewal.

This month, a PowerPoint slide leaked by Edward Snowden and shown on Brazilian TV in a story about NSA surveillance of Petrobas suggested that the SWIFT banking network was also among the NSA's targets.